The Difference Between Reach and Engagement

By Francisco Ascensao

Working with a range of clients across the globe, since launching our platform we’ve always challenged the miscomputation around reach and engagement. It is easy to think that an influencer with a million followers, subscribers or fans in their network are the most powerful. Whilst at a very basic level this argument could be true, the reality is there are a number of additional factors that need to be taken into account to tell the full story.

The most important of all of these is engagement. If an influencer has a million followers, how many of those are engaged? And how many are sharing their content or participating in the conversation?

Working with a range of smaller influencers vs a few large delivers drastically higher levels of engagement. This means that when content is posted or shared with the community of a smaller influencer, far more people do something with it - surely that is what brands want? We’ve seen up to 10 times the level of engagement with these perceived niche influencers vs what can been achieved with the larger.

Why is this the case? Firstly, when a community gets larger the content generally gets broader and as a result the fans that loved the original focus start moving away. Secondly, the larger the profile the harder it is for the influencer to engage with every single follower that responds or engages in conversation with them. This over time will reduce the level of engagement between influencer and audience as they are simply conversing less.

Collectively, working with 250 influencers with 4,000 followers each to reach a million potential followers will generate staggeringly high levels of engagement when compared to working with one influencer with the same reach. This approach has not only been proven to work, as per the aforementioned stats, but also creates an amplification effect. As more and more people are getting involved, the opportunities to see are increased, and creates the feeling that “everyone” is getting involved in the campaign - maybe it is even becoming a movement. The approach also creates 250 more times the content with variety, enabling brands to focus in on different segments and ensure they are being serviced with the most relevant message.

The next time you create or commission an influencer campaign, move your focus from reach to engagement to see your results explode exponentially.

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